This invention relates generally to methods for packing cartons, and more particularly concerns a method for packing flexible, flat packages into a carton in such a way as to facilitate removal of the flat packages from the carton.
Conventionally, after disposable medical products, such as surgical packs and components including drapes, gowns, and the like, are manufactured, those products are folded, sterile wrapped, and sealed into kraft bags to produce a flexible, flat package. A number of those flexible, flat packages are then stacked one on top of the other, and the resulting stack is placed in an open top, plastic liner bag. The liner bag is large enough so that there is an excess portion or neck provided between the bag's top opening and the stack of packages. The liner bag with its contents is lowered by means of the bag's neck into a corrugated carton, and the carton is sealed. Conversely, the liner bag can be placed inside the corrugated carton and then filled with the flexible flat packages.
The length and width of the flat packages are approximately the same as the length and width of the corrugated carton so that the stack of packages fits snugly within the walls of the corrugated carton. The thickness of each flat package is such that the combined thicknesses of the packages produces a stack having a height equal to the height of the carton, thereby filling the carton.
Upon receipt in a hospital of a carton of surgical packs or components packed in the described conventional fashion, the carton is opened, the liner bag and flat packages are pulled from the carton by grasping the bag's neck, ahd the carton is discarded in order to eliminate any contaminants that may have become attached to the carton during its shipment and storage. The surgical packages are left in the plastic liner bag in the hospital's storage area so that the plastic liner bag can serve as a dust cover during storage.
Because the packages of surgical supplies fit snugly within the walls of the corrugated carton and because of the affinity of the plastic liner for the inside walls of the corrugated carton, it is difficult to remove the liner bag with the packages therein from the cardboard carton by merely grasping the neck of the liner bag and pulling the liner bag through the top opening of the carton. Removal of the liner bag and packages is made difficult not only by the friction between the sides of the liner bag and the corrugated carton but also by a partial vacuum that is created between the liner bag and the bottom of the carton as the liner bag is withdrawn from the corrugated carton.
For example, where nine surgical drape packages are stacked within a corrugated carton having a length of 17.625 inches, a width of 11.3125 inches, and a height of 16.25 inches, and where the liner bag and the surgical packages weigh approximately 19 pounds, the amount of force exerted on the neck of the liner bag that is required to pull the liner bag with the nine surgical packages therein from the carton is about 50 pounds.
Because the force required to extract the liner bag and its contents from the carton is greater than 19 pounds, the gross weight of the contents of the full carton, it is necessary to have some means for holding the carton down while the bag is pulled out of the carton. Consequently the simple task of removing the plastic bag containing the surgical packages from the carton for inventory purposes may ultimately require two people, one to hold the carton down and a second person to pull the plastic bag and its contents from the carton.